Sunset at Skokie Lagoons

The Skokie Lagoons are somewhat ugly year-round and I never really

 thought of taking photos there until several months ago. I guess this looks

 a bit more like a transcendentalist painting than how the Lagoons actually

 are, but I like that. The exaggerated colors, the calmness of the birds (or the

 single bird in the top photo), and the vibrant water all give a strong

 argument for Winnetkans to visit the Lagoons; which they should because

 it's nice to have nature like this within walking distance of your home.

Throughout fall I biked to the Lagoons to practice landscape photography. 

They were taken in autumn during sunset, which is

 the perfect time for photographing trees. 

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Colored Tree in Crow Island Woods

 There's a particular lack of photos of this nice little patch of forest in Winnetka,

 and I'd like to make a contribution. For some reason the ivy and trees began having 

pastel-like colors in early autumn. The leaves have fallen off since then, but

 it was really something about a month ago.

I took these with my 50mm f/1.8, but used a smaller aperture. The effect the

 lens gave it looks awesome. I'm not sure whether any of my other lenses 

would've made the colors stand out as much.

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Paths in Fort Sheridan

I biked to Fort Sheridan for my first time a year ago and I remember 

there was this massive vacant field with a sign that said it would be

 developed into a nature preserve next year and I thought I wouldn't go back but since 

then I've biked there quite a few times because it's a nice destination and only about an hour away.

The nature preserve itself is a giant prairie field next to a small forest and is

 circumvented by a few quiet trails. I used a very low aperture

 to get the blurred effect.

Fort Sheridan

Taken in November 2011

Skokie Lagoons before Winter

Since I hadn't photographed anything for about a week I biked down to the

 Skokie Lagoons yesterday to get some landscape shots. The sky was 

overcast and the trees were barren, and it looked like the end of fall and

 the beginning of winter. There weren't any leaves or birds, and everything

 looked much more dead than it did a few weeks ago. A bunch of people

 were fishing though, so there was probably more life in the water.

I recently read about the "Rule of Thirds" and so I wanted to try it out 

with landscapes. The top photo turned out much bleaker than I intended

 and the log doesn't add much, but the bottom photo captures the 

barrenness of the trees well enough. 

Winnetka

Taken in November 2011

Leaves in Elm Park

I live a block away from Elm Park, which is a small field by Skokie School, so I walked over

 there one weekend when I was bored to photograph the trees/leaves. 

For these photos I went up to the end of a branch and

 shot at a f/2.8 to make the leaves look isolated but have some presence.

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Path in Crow Island Woods

Behind Crow Island Elementary School is a small woods with a dirt 

path circumventing through it. Just as autumn started the leaves

 in Crow Island Woods began having more crayon-like colors. This

 looked pretty neat at a f/1.8, which gave the leaves a more saturated 

and shadow-strewn texture.  

The path itself had overgrown shrubs on the side and I thought

 that getting a low angle with one of the colorful trees in the background

 would give the photo a more surreal/comforting edge to the woods. I used to

 walk through the woods when I was in elementary school, so maybe with

 this photo I was trying to capture the nostalgia of when I was much shorter

 and found the woods to be more mysterious of a place.

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Snapping Turtle at Skokie Lagoons

There's a snapping turtle at a nature preserve in Glenview, but

 otherwise I had no idea that these lived in the Skokie Lagoons. I imagine they 

don't move around much, and this one seemed pretty unfriendly. A group of bikers 

had gathered around the turtle and thought it was neat so I got off my bike and 

snapped a few photos (pun). It was somewhat large and ugly and encountering

one of them was probably pretty rare.

I had my f/1.8 while I was biking along the trail, so that's the aperture

 I used, which explains the blur. It usually works well when I take close-ups 

of wildlife that aren't too far away. 

Glencoe

Taken in October 2011

Buffalo Creek Reservoir

While driving home from my photography hike through Long Grove
 last week I spotted a forest preserve in Buffalo Grove that looked
 interesting enough to stop and photograph. It ended up being a reservoir
 for Buffalo Creek, a branch of which I had just photographed while in Long Grove. 

I recommend local photographs stop by there sometime: it's very scenic. 
I took these photos with a wider lens to capture all of the landscape, but it looks 
a bit crowded and dull. Also it was very cloudy, so the lighting was poor.

Buffalo Grove

Taken in November 2011

Covered Bridge

A week ago I drove to Long Grove with my camera because it

 seemed like it would be an ideal place to photograph in autumn.

 It ended up being a bit of a tourist hot-spot, so I hiked along

 the secluded "Covered Bridge Trail" on Buffalo Creek and

 got a few alright pictures of a (covered) bridge that leads into the historic mall area.

I used my 50mm f/1.8, which may explain why only the

 subject is in focus. I was too lazy to go back to my car and get a wider lens

 and I like the effect lower apertures have. For the top photo I went as

 close to the creek as I could-- which was on a small patch of leaves and mud-- and

 photographed some  dried grass and leaves in front of the bridge. 

For the bottom photo I was on the trail and photographed the bridge

 peeking over dense prairie grass. I included some sky, but as you can

 see it was getting cloudy and the lighting got progressively worse for

 taking pictures as the day went on.

Long Grove

Taken in November 2011

Tower/Lloyd Beach at Night

Today while biking home from school when it was just starting to get dark out 
I  decided to go out to the pier at Maple Beach to see if
 there'd be anything worth photographing. The lights at the boathouse
 in Lloyd Beach and the tower at Tower Beach reflected

 off the lake so I tried taking some long exposures with 
low apertures to get water blur and to be able to see the tower at

 night. Using a high aperture had a nicer effect- the lights on the water

 were fuzzier and everything was more in focus, but using a low aperture

 made the sky more vibrant. 

Here's when I exposed it for a full 6 seconds:

Winnetka

Taken in November 2011

Mini Stream in Harms Woods

 Yesterday I went back along the dirt paths to that stream in Harms Woods-- which I 

discovered is actually part of the Chicago River-- in hopes of photographing 

autumn leaves on trees. All the leaves had fallen to the ground and

 the trees looked a bit barren, so I looked for things to take pictures 

of in the underbrush; which is how I spotted this little makeshift stream

 that's comprised of large pebbles and leads downhill into the river. 

There's a sense of tranquility and solitude "bubbling brooks" have,
 and I tried to capture that by shooting at f/1.8, getting as close as 
humanely possible and including the sunset in the out of focus background. 
I think it looks nice. Here's an aerial view:

Glenview

Taken in November 2011

Leaves in Fall

 When I biked to Harms Woods two weeks ago I had planned on

 photographing leaves that had changed colors from directly below

 with my telephoto lens and sort of creating this series where

 all the photos would have the same composition and lighting but the

 leaves would be different. It didn't quite work, but I got some

 nice close-ups of autumn canopy.

Glenview

Taken in October 2011

Field in Bannockburn

A month before summer ended I embarked to Lincolnshire on my bike and on the

 way offhandedly photographed a vacant field in Bannockburn, which is a small buffer 
village between Lake Forest and inland Cook County that consists mostly of 
highways and high-income housing. Bannockburn isn't necessarily "bike accessible" 
so I had to take this photo at the side of a major road. There was also a 
prairie next to it that would've made a good picture, but I was more focused 
on biking than taking pictures; I just happened to have my camera with me. 

This'd probably look better if I messed with the brightness or 

used some light HDR, but I like how the clouds look and how the 

trees lead your eyes across the field. Here's an alternative angle:

Bannockburn

Taken in August 2011

Autumn at Skokie Lagoons

 Since the leaves have begun to change colors I've made a habit 
of biking to the Skokie Lagoons in hopes of getting a perfect picture 
of trees next to the water at sunset. I suppose this shot is close 
enough in terms of composition and capturing autumn colors. 

I used a small tripod and a high aperture at sunset to capture 
the reflection of the trees in the water at a low angle with warmer 
colors. Occasionally there'd be a few lone fishermen or a group 
of geese on the other side of the lagoon.

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Artwork in Long Grove

Long Grove is one of the few places in the Chicagoland area that can truly 
be described as "quaint". The downtown area looks like a historic European
 village (it even calls  itself "Historic Village of Long Grove") and consists 
mostly of authentic crafts, antiques, and homemade food shops. 

I took these photos with a film camera on a field trip in my freshman Photography 
class for an assignment on Depth of Field. The owner of the painting shop
 kicked me out, but I grabbed a quick shot of the oil paintings that were 
propped outside, and later got this shot of an abstract wind-chime.

Long Grove

Taken in November 2009

Cormorant at Skokie Lagoons

 This is my first year catching sight of these semi-aquatic birds at the Skokie Lagoons, which is 

a bit odd seeing as I've lived here my entire life and bike along the trail frequently. They 

don't really seem to fit in with the typical Northern Illinois ornithic scene of blue herons,

 mallards, and kestrels. 


Occasionally I'll see one wandering through the lagoon alone or with a few ducks, 
but I've noticed that a small group of cormorants usually hang out in a tree near where the 
trail begins, so I brought my telephoto lens over there to get a few close-ups.  

Winnetka

Taken in September 2011

Stream in Harms Woods

I'd recently explored a few of the dirt paths which branch off the bike trail in Harms Woods 
and found a few secluded picturesque spots, so I ventured out into the Woods

a week ago to photograph some autumn colors. For this particular shot I set 

my tripod next to a stream which runs through the Woods (not sure what it's called;
 could be part of the Skokie Lagoon *Update: it's the Chicago River*) to capture the

 reflection of the leaves with some water blur.

The original photo before I cropped it, increased the red balance, 

and added a warming filter on Photoshop: 

Glenview

Taken in October 2011